One of Laudium’s oldest organisations, the Pretoria Muslim Trust (PMT) is once more in the firing line, after news of the organisation still not having its audited financials up to date, as required for it to continue as a non-profit organisation.
This follows the PMT recently going on a fund-raising drive to the public, for its project to put up a new ghusal khana (place of washing of a deceased person) which boasts having fridges to store bodies of deceased persons, with the project running into millions of rand. A number of people criticized the PMT for budgeting so much money for the project, around R4million, more so as the majority of Muslim funerals in the Laudium/Erasmia area are not undertaken by the PMT anymore. Also, some people referred to the article of the Laudium Sun dated, July 26, 2024, whereby it was mentioned that the PMT lost about R1million in subsidies for its school, from the Gauteng Dept of Education, due to its audited financials not being ready by the cut- off date of end June, 2024. This, despite an agreement being reached about four years ago, by concerned members of the community and some of the then PMT members to co-opt new members from the community into the PMT, to ‘stabilize’ the PMT and to get its financials up to date. The new group headed by Ayyaz Ahmed of Flywell Travel was given a period of two years, to get the PMT’s financials in order. However, the new group afterwards decided that it would be best to form a new company for the PMT School, so that fresh audited financials could be submitted to the Gauteng Dept of Education, in order for the school to receive its subsidies which other private schools are also receiving. Despite forming the new company about three years back, the Laudium Sun understands that the new committee under Ayyaz, has to date, no audited financials for the school and neither do they have updated audited financials for the PMT, despite being in office for about four years now. In the interim the Laudium Sun was told unofficially by members of the PMT that the auditors of the PMT refused to sign the financials as there was a discrepancy in the financials for the amount of about R200, 000, and that the matter was not resolved by the PMT as at end June 2024, despite the auditors raising the red flag some time last year. The Laudium Sun understands that some of the trustees of the PMT tried to twist the arm of the auditors in signing the financials, despite the
discrepancies, but the auditing firm refused to sign off the books.
Auditing firm resigns
In the latest development, Tayfin Auditors have told the Laudium Sun that they would tender their resignation as auditors for the PMT effective the post 2021 AFS (Audited Financial Statements). When asked by the Laudium Sun, “What is the status of a public body such as the PMT, that has not submitted audited financials for years, concerning fundraising and issuing of section 18A certificates”, Tayfin said, “The PMT is in violation of various statutes and its board is conducting itself in a reckless manner.” The Laudium Sun also sent a number of questions to Ayyaz, as head of the PMT and other members. Our questions included concerns raised by certain members of the community that the PMT was recklessly issuing 18A certificates to donors without them meeting the criteria. Thus one of the questions asked by the Laudium Sun was whether the PMT had issued any 18A certificates to anyone and if they did, we requested the names of all those who received the certificates. The Laudium Sun also asked why audited financials for the school were not ready by end June 2024, (which resulted in the PMT losing about R1 Mil in subsidies) and whether the financials of PMT have now been sent to the auditors and who are the new auditors. However despite requesting an urgent response, no response was received from Ayyaz or the PMT at the time going to press, late last night.
